Valgius, et probet hæc Octavius ; -Demetri, teque, Tigelli, Discipularum inter jubeo plorare cathedras*. Nor did Horace perhaps expect that his verses should be praised by all men of talents. At least certain it is in life, that such men frequently join the herd, are governed in their judgment of men's characters by the weakest prejudices, and senselessly apply those rules to others, which shall soon afterwards be employed for the condemnation of themselves. * Let Budgel charge low Grub-street on my quill, But why then publish? Granville the polite, POPE. Ir SECT. II., SOURCES OF POPULAR DISAPPROBATION. may be useful to enumerate some of those circumstances, by one or other of which, men in some respects of uncommon moral endowments, are usually found to forfeit, in the judgment of the mass of mankind, the most ordinary degree of moral reputation. First, men of uncommon moratendowments, may be expected to be men of uncommon intellectual powers. But such men, in some points at least, will be apt to think for themselves, to meditate profoundly, and, by an almost necessary consequence, to embrace some opinions that are not embraced by the multitude. This is an obvious disqualification in a candidate for common fame. No man can, it may be added, no man ought, to think quite as favourably of the man who differs from him in opinion, as of the man with whom he agrees. To say that the opinions which any man entertains, appear to him to be true, is an identical proposition. Add to which, that he must be a weak man indeed, who does not perceive the connection between opinion and practice, or who, while he respects the virtues of his friend, does not regret, as a serious disadvantage, the error of his sentiments. But this privilege, or this duty, of blaming the dissent of our neighbours, the vulgar abuse. Nor does it seldom happen, that the opinions they regard as most sacred and momentous, whether in religion, in politics, or morals, are the most ridiculously absurd, or flagrantly indefensible. Secondly, the man, whose opinions are the result of his own reflection, will often have an individual mode of acting, as well as of thinking. The cheapest plan for acquiring reputation will be found to consist in the conforming ourselves to the prejudices of others. He that acts in unison with other men's sentiments and expectations, will be easily understood; they will find nothing ambiguous in the interpretation of his conduct, and nothing revolting in its tenour. The mass of mankind do not love, in the practice of human affairs at least, any thing that surprises or puzzles them. They are partial to things trite and plain; and no man is in more danger of missing their applause, than the man who takes extraordinary pains to deserve it. Upon uncommon flights of virtue they usually put a sinister interpretation. Great delicacy of sentiment is, in their apprehension, affectation and artifice. And they do not incline to yield much to those comprehensive and disinterested sentiments of which they have no experience in their own bosoms. But a mistake, still more general than those yet enumerated, as well as more fatal to every impar tial decision respecting men's virtue or vice, is the propensity we have every day occasion to observe among mankind, to magnify some quality or action that is really worthy of regret, into a vice altogether destructive of every pretension to moral excellence. This general propensity is, of course, in the highest degree favourable to ordinary and feeble characters, and threatens with all its hostility characters of energy, of grand and decisive features. Characters, endowed with great excellencies, will, unfortunately, frequently stand in need of great allowances. Men cannot perhaps be equally attentive to minutiae and to matters of lofty import. Ordinary characters are generally safe in this respect. They venture upon no untried paths. They attempt no sublime and unusual virtues. They have no other care incumbent upon them in this respect, but that of keeping within a certain beaten road, never straying after peculiar beauties, never compelled to have recourse to doubtful expedients. Want of punctuality, particularly in the mercantile concerns of life, is one of those defects which, for time immemorial, have supplied materials for invective against eminent and extraordinary men. Punctuality is no doubt a quality of high importance. That man's virtue deserves to be regarded with some suspicion, who can readily be induced to trifle with the time, and perhaps still more with the property, of his neighbours. But we must always be peculiarly exposed to error in our judgment of the conduct of men, when we judge it indiscriminately in the mass, without taking into account the circumstances that attend them. There are no persons so vehement in their condemnation of pccuniary breach of contract, as many of those who, coming early into the possession of an income fully commensurate to their wants, never felt the pressure of difficulties. T One of the circumstances often omitted in the estimation, is the spirit in which perhaps the pecuniary supply was granted. It is often the speculation of a tradesman, who thought the concern worth accepting, at the same time that he fully took into account the uncertainty of payment. It is often the kindness of a friend, who says to himself, If the debt never be discharged, I am content; and who afterwards perhaps leaves the claim among his heirs. These circumstances by no means cancel the pecuniary obligation; but they ought not in justice to be forgotten. People in general accustom themselves to forget the anguish of the insolvent debtor, and the unwearied struggles he has perhaps made to appear in a different character. Nothing can be. more strongly marked with folly and injustice, |